Undaunted Hero
by Taxidermied Owl Finger
Summary: Midoriya Izuku never manifested a quirk. Strangely enough, he's unaffected by other people's quirks as well.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: New to fandom. Not sure if this has been done before.

* * *

The change was so subtle that he wasn't sure if it even existed. A runner who had spent a few days training his body wouldn't find it odd if he could suddenly run a little bit longer. As for him, a boy who had been hit so much in the past, it hardly shocked him when he discovered that…

...Kacchan's explosions just didn't hurt anymore...

As another hand whipped across his face, he felt nothing. Not even the light sting of a firecracker. Nor the heat of fiery embers. Even the feeling of flesh slamming into flesh barely registered in his mind.

With perfect stillness, he stood there as Kacchan continued to lay onto him with waves of hits. Flashes of fiery embers lit up the center of the park as each successful strike was accompanied by a subsequent explosion. Like an immovable object, he withstood through it all, his eyes unblinking, only reflecting the surprise of his own toughness.

Once the thrill of abusing him wore off, Kacchan made a face and left with his lackeys. Leaving only a offhand remark of "how creepy" at the face of his undaunting defiance. For the first time, he wasn't left in a burned heap, smoking from all over his body.

That was the first time that he saw doubt on Kacchan's face.

"Th-thank you."

He turned around, towards the frightened boy he had thrown his life on the line to protect.

For the first time, the one that he saved was smiling at him with genuine gratitude. Not gratitude mixed with pity and worry for his well being. Just genuine gratitude.

This was the first time that he managed to help others without worrying someone else.

The rest of his childhood played out just like how he thought it would. Whatever self-esteem he managed to build up was quickly laughed away by his bullies so he spent a good chunk of his days as a mumbling mess who couldn't talk to girls.

* * *

Kacchan had stopped hitting him. Not out of mercy but more out of fear of looking weak in front of his friends. Who wouldn't look stupid if the person they punched barely reacted to their fists?

Kacchan still occasionally blew up the table he was sitting on as a mean of intimidation. And every time, he would cringe away, reflexively.

This sign of weakness was all that Katsuki needed to be reassured of their power dynamic and he would leave him alone after that. As long as he continued to cower away, Kacchan could still believe himself to be stronger.

Like usual, his life had fallen into a routine. As others around him flexed their quirks, he would write enviously in his notebook, all the while daydreaming about performing grandiose heroics.

Then there was, of course, the crime scenes.

He would rush to the scene of the crime everytime and watch the heroes he wished to become save the people that he wished to save. And each time without fail, he would write stuff down in his notebook, like an inspired author who jotted down anything that caught his fancy.

To others, it might appear desperate or pathetic.

And perhaps it was.

He just needed something to keep him busy from the cold stares of reality.

He was a boy born without a quirk.

In this society, he was destined to live a mundane life. Like a pauper who dreamed of a life in the castle, his dream of being a hero was merely a foolish pipe dream.

The scary part of being told to kill yourself was not the extreme malice and cruelty that someone could possess to even utter such words. It was the moment of pondering that scared him. Because for a moment, he actually considered it.

Izuku fished his notebook out of the school pond, dried it off, kept his back straight and continued to walk away from reality.

However, the sudden slime that attacked him felt very real. As was the suffocation that followed as his attacker forced slime down his throat.

He struggled immediately. Frantic hands clawing furiously against the green slime that trapped him.

It felt weird. He was able to touch the guy even when he was liquid. This seemed to have surprised the slime guy as well as his assailant's previous schadenfreude was quickly tainted by mild confusion.

"H-how did-"

A resonant sound of "I am here." cut off the conversation before it could begin.

Then, as if bent by all the air in the world, the villain's body was violently ripped off of him. And that was that.

This was his first meeting with the world's greatest hero.


	2. Chapter 2

He must have blacked out one point from the excitement.

The repeated proddings of his cheeks opened his eyes and the world of darkness gave away to a world of clouded light. A familiar face was in front of him, its features strong and prominent. Blurred creases on the skin gradually narrowed down into solid wrinkles, and a pair of eyes burned with unquenchable flame. Two rows of porcelain straight teeth moved alongside his mouth and a soundless inquiry floated out from within.

He couldn't hear anything. Not yet at least.

"...Hey…"

"Hey…"

The figure slowly became clearer. The world in front of him became more vivid. His thoughts became more coherent. Ironically, it was because of his realization that it was All Might talking him that he nearly blacked out again. But he managed to collect himself, somewhat, and scurried away like a fool instead.

In front of the backdrop of flourishing cherry trees, the symbol of peace talked, his golden hair reminiscent of the very sun that brought life to all.

"But, you were a big help. Thanks."

But he was too awestruck to realize what was going on. The bits and pieces of the conversation that his brain managed to process were all eclipsed by the thought that it was All Might standing in front of him.

Him? Being a big help? That wasn't something he expected to come out of All Might's mouth.

"I captured him safely!" The hero lifted up two bottles of Torrent with his trunk-like arms. Inside of the bottles were the body of the villain that assaulted him before.

Ah, he could feel himself blushing.

The thought of getting an autograph shook him from his hopeless stupor and he quickly scrambled around looking for a notebook. He finally found it, laying by the side of the road, cover dirtied from accumulated abuse, his thirteenth notebook.

With an almost perverse fervor he flipped through the notebook as he looked for a blank page to house All Might's autograph. When he reached a certain page, all the admiration and appreciation he had for the hero came rushing back to him. He was now looking at a two page spread that comprised of All Might's name and a cartoonish drawing of his iconic look.

He bowed repeatedly and promised to make the autograph a family heirloom. In response, All Might gave him a thumbs up to acknowledge his enthusiasm.

His words and actions must have seemed silly to a hero like All Might. But he didn't care. He wanted to bask in the moment. To enjoy it. To leave a good impression so that, if by chance, they bumped into each other on the street again, he could perhaps act all cool and be all buddy-buddy with him.

A sense of longing panic overcame him as he watched All Might crouch down, preparing to leave. He didn't want to say goodbye right here. Not when there was still so much he wanted to say. Without a second thought, he wrapped an arm around All Might's legs. When All Might jumped, he flew as well.

They soared across the Mustafu skyline together, him as the unwanted passenger, and All Might as the unwitting carrier. Like any sensible hero would when they see that a civilian had latched onto them, All Might tried to shake him off, to separate him from their dangerous profession. But like any other boy who had hitched a ride a hundred of meter above the ground, he held on with all his might.

"If I let go right now, I will die!"

That seemed to have gotten All Might's hand off of his face. Now if only he could wrap his other arm around All Might's leg as well then he wouldn't have to worry about falling.

Izuku squirmed until he was in position. _Ha...there. Now I don't have to..._

All Might deflated like a balloon.

* * *

They crashed landed onto a rooftop together. All Might was covered in a blanket of mist while he lied a couple of feet away, breathing his pain away.

Once the dust lifted, what stood in front of him was no longer the All Might that he recognized. Rather it was a emaciated skeletal being with sunken cheeks and eyes too dark to inspire hope.

What followed was a harrowing dose of reality. Something that he hated. All Might explained to him the danger of his work, the wound that he sustained from an undisclosed fight against a powerful foe, and his crippled existence.

But even with all that, somehow he still managed to muster up the courage to ask the question that had been gnawing at him since he was five.

"Can someone without a quirk be a hero as well?"

At that point, it wasn't a question that warranted an answer, but his hero answered it anyway.

After all was done, he was left with a solemn advice to look into a career as a policeman and a destroyed self-esteem.

He always hated to be reminded of reality. Even more so when it came from the man that he idolized the most. He felt sadness, betrayal, but most importantly, self-pity.

The realization that all road lead to failure was such a terrible feeling. But yet the feeling that success was impossible was strangely liberating. It was like he no longer needed to try anymore.

As Izuku walked on the streets he tried to cheer himself up. Perhaps being a policeman wouldn't be that bad. He just wanted to help people. Whether or not he gained fame from helping others shouldn't matter.

With a look of steeled resolve across his face, Izuku took a step forward, this time with more purpose than he had before. He would abandon his childish pipe dream of becoming a hero and set all of his energy into training to be a police man instead. When he got home, he planned on doing push ups and build up his body strength.

That was his plan and continued to be his plan as he made his way through the streets of Mustafu. But a distant explosion lead him off course.

* * *

Out of a force of habit, he wandered to the scene of the incident. The place resembled hell on earth.

Window shattered. The stands of the street vendors trashed. The surrounding area was dyed in a light orange by the flame bushes that littered the floor. Panicked screams floated in the air in an endless cycle.

Then, there in the center of it all, was Kachan, entrapped by a villain that should have been in All Might's custody.

It didn't take him long to figure out that he was the one responsible for the current situation. If he hadn't interrupted with All Might's work, then All Might would have never lost track of the villain wreaking havoc right now.

For what felt like an eternity, he stood amongst the rest of the gathered crowd as they watched uselessly from the sidelines. No one knew what to make of the situation. Not the adults around him, not the heroes on the scene, and certainly not Kachan.

Then when a familiar look crossed Kachan's face, he knew he had to take action. The look of helplessness had called his body to action and he moved before he could stop himself. It wasn't an expression that he commonly associated with Kachan, but the fact that he showed it, it meant he needed help.

He pushed through the crowd of adults and charged forward. The villain saw him coming and attacked.

Filthy slimes rushed past him as the information of his notebook moved to the front of his mind.

Everything was telling him to head back. From the putrid movement of the slime as it twisted itself on Kachan's body, the spiteful glare of the villain, the panicked calls of the onlooker, to the tortured agony on Kachan's face, everything screamed of danger. But there was no way he could back down now

Finally, he leapt. His body soared through the air, past the rampant embers of Kachan's explosions, past the doubts of others around him, and past his own self-pity. He reared his right fist behind him. His body seemed to move instinctively.

 _Smash!_

He threw his punch. The villain's head reared away violently and his fist ached furiously. Yet, somehow, like before, he could touch the villain despite the villain being made of slime.

Gravity kicked in and he dropped to the floor shortly afterwards. The villain was now glaring at him, not pleased with what he had done. It was at that moment that Izuku braced himself for what was to come. When green slimes rushed towards him and covered his field of vision, the boy closed his eyes and prepared for death.

But the impact never came.

He opened his eyes again. Blocking the hit in his stead was All Might, half of his body covered in the offending slime that had brought everyone so much misery, while the other half was shrouded in steam.

With a single punch, the villain was gone, an mighty air wave shot skyward and summoned down rain.

All Might had saved him once more.


	3. Chapter 3

As he walked home by his alone, the streets around him basked in a golden glow by the setting sun, the sky above him a light orange, he felt like a loser. All Might was held up by the mass media. Kachan was pampered to by other pro heroes, and he, the boy who had risked it all, was left empty handed. Life did have a strange way of dealing out rewards. Often times, the people who tried the hardest were the ones left with nothing.

Though he supposed this was what he should expect. If anyone up there was on his side then he wouldn't be going through this dilemma in the first place.

No point in standing around moping, he told himself. If he really wanted to become a policeman, then he shouldn't waste time being be a wimp. Time to do some push ups like he planned on doing.

"Deku!"

He turned around, having not expected to be engaged at this time of the day. Rushing at him in the same direction was Kacchan. Somehow, the boy's voice sounded less hostile than it did before. Like a friend calling after another.

"I never asked you for help!"

There was the anger again.

Perhaps he just imagined whatever amiability that he heard. Or perhaps Kacchan was just too out of breath to growl at him before.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder what made Kacchan run all the way over here for him. If Kacchan came all the way over here just to tell him off, then it was a bit too petty for him to accept.

What followed was yet another breaking speech about how he was quirkless, how he was useless, and how he didn't help anyone. It was nothing that he hadn't heard before nor was it anything that he needed to hear again. After all was said and done, Kacchan marched off, his movement exaggerated as if he came out of a comic.

As Kacchan disappeared from his view, he turned to continue his trekk back home. The boy proceeded to get the fright of his life as a big blonde muscular dude skidded right into his path.

"I am here!"

"A-All Might?! Why are you here?" He stammered out, then shifted his eyes behind him, to the place that they came from. "You were surrounded by reporters until just now…"

All Might let out his characteristic laugh. "Getting away from them was a piece of cake."

"Why?" All Might turned away from him and posed. "Because I am All Migh-"

Then almost anticlimactically, All Might deflated in a ball of steam. Replacing the iconic hero, was the skinny man that he spoke with on the rooftop.

Albeit skinnier than before, All Might wiped away the blood that had spilled from his mouth and picked up where he left off.

"Young man. I come with thanks, a correction and a suggestion."

He was confused. What would someone like All Might have to say to him. Besides it was all his fault that everything happened in the first place.

But All Might continued to talk and explained to him that it was because of his bravery that he was able to act. That every top hero had a similar experience as him regarding how their body "just acted on their own."

One sentence followed another, and whatever mental barrier he had built up during the course of the day started to break down. When the last bastion of his mind shattered, he was left with an uncomfortable truth.

He really wanted to be a hero after all.

He dropped down to his knees and sobbed uncontrollably.

In front of the golden sun, tickled by the cherry carrying wind, All Might uttered the words that would change his life forever.

"You can be a hero."

* * *

Thus began months of hellish training. At the end of it, he inherited All Might's power. The power that All Might had described as a holy torch.

As he swallowed All Might's hair, a horrific image flashed through his mind. An image of a flame frozen in place, drifting ceaselessly into an endless abyss.

* * *

By 8:40 A.M of the same day, he was standing outside the U-shaped building of the U.A. entrance exam.

Whatever confidence he had was quickly killed off as Kacchan told him to move under the threat of murder. Although Kacchan hadn't done anything to him since the slime incident, forces of habits were still a pain to deal with.

With Kacchan gone, Izuku set his sight on the facility door again. If he didn't hurry up, he might end up late.

He took a step forward, only to trip over himself out of nervousness. He felt himself slant over, the ground underneath him seemingly rushing up to his face. Then he felt something, possibly a hand, hit him in the back. His face proceeded to smashed against the floor.

"Ow…" He rubbed his aching face as he sat up. Looking down on him was a brown haired girl with a roundish face. She blinked dumbly at him as if something that wasn't supposed to happen just happened. Then the girl's mouth opened and words came out.

It took him a brief moment to realize that the person speaking to him was a girl. When he did, he felt his mind go blank.

He simply stood there like a fool as the girl rambled on and when she left, he was filled with an unearned sense of triumph.

 _I talked to a girl!_ He thought as faint blush crossed his face. Though even he couldn't remember what exactly he said.

He was now in the middle of the mock test and things were not going well. While everyone else was racking up points, he was simply a moron in a blue jacket. He had zero points so far and time was running out.

Though he hadn't captured any points, the rumbling of the earth and shaking of the buildings shortly captured his attention. Coming seemingly out of nowhere was a towering mechanical behemoth with hands large enough to seize the roofs of entire buildings. Eerily, the behemoths' seven crimson eyes gazed down upon them, and without warning, it slammed its gargantuan fist onto the ground. A roaring wave of sand overcame them, debris whipping mercilessly against their face. In mere moments, a group of promising examinees was reduced to nothing but panicked children as they scrambled for their lives.

Shaken to his core in front of an overwhelming threat, Izuku Midoriya dropped to his butt in horror. He knew he needed to get out of here. Or else he would be crushed to death. Not to mention he was still at zero points.

He flipped onto his rear and attempted to crawl away, driven solely by a lack of desire to let his efforts go to waste.

A feminine yelp of pain stopped him in his tracks.

He turned around and watched as the cloud of dust gave way to the girl trapped underneath piles of broken rubble.

He could recognize that head of brown hair and that round face anyday. It was the girl who spoke to him before.

Before he could stop himself, he was running. Like that time when Kacchan, he was once again charging towards a certain doom. Still, the thoughts of stopping did not cross his mind.

He leapt, floating across the damaged streets with a fist reared behind him.

The words of All Might echoed in his mind.

 _Squeeze your buttocks...and yell this inside your heart-_

 _"Smash!"_

 _Huh…_

Nothing happened. He was still standing on the ground. Though his fist made contact with the machine, it ached like crazy.

Did he fail to inherit the power of All Might?

 _What to do?_

 _What to do?_

 _What to do?_

He looked in front of him and was stared down by the machine's shining eyes. Then he looked behind him, towards the girl that he just tried to save.

With no time to waste, he quickly ran over towards the girl and started to push the rubbles off of her. He would just have to figure out everything at a later time. Without a doubt that giant machine was going to make a move again soon. The only rational thing to do at this point was to try and get to safety.

As the final slab of stone slid off the girl's legs, he grabbed her and ran. The ground behind them exploded from the force of the robot's punch and both of them were propelled forward from the ensuing shockwave.

Just at that time, the whistle blew to announce the end of the exam.

He was still at zero points.

... As everyone went their separate ways, he received a call from All Might.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: It has been a year and I have returned lol. Thank you all for the feedbacks. :)

* * *

"Come meet me at the park. I will be waiting for you at 10 pm"

When he came across people, he simply walked away. When the couple of their evening tryst gave him a nod of acknowledgement, he didn't nod back. When an elderly pair walking their jackshund waved and smiled at him, he didn't wave or smile back. A part of him felt undeserving of their attention and he was too afraid to look them in the eye.

Finally, he stopped by the lake and stared into the watery surface. Reflected upon it were the crescent moon, the canopy of trees, the brilliance of stars, and of course him—a freckled loser.

"Young Midoriya!"

His head spun at the sound of the familiar voice, a feeble, but familiar one nonetheless.

The voice belonged to his idol, who was waving at him while drawing closer to him from the distance. His signature golden locks swayed in the air.

"All Migh-!" He called out. But quickly covered his mouth once he caught the look of panic that streaked across his hero's face.

He had made a huge mistake.

"Ah!" He tried to cover up for his slip up by turning his eyes to his phone, a fist punching enthusiastically in the air as he donned the guise of a zealous All Might fanboy— not that he had to do much pretending. "Get them, All Might! Get them! Show the villains what you got!"

The people in the park seemed to have stared even harder, and Izuku blushed at the judgment in their gaze. Luckily, they quickly looked away and resumed their business.

Operation Pretending-to-Watch-An-All-Might-Video appeared to be a success.

But if there were a hole in the ground, he would still hide in it from the embarrassment of it all.

When All Might caught up to him, he patted him on the shoulder. "Let's move this somewhere else."

Izuku was almost too glad to move away from the place where he humiliated himself.

* * *

They found their spot on a bench at the fringe of the park, where the only thing looking over them were the gleams of street lights.

All Might produced two sticks of cotton candy from his black duffle bag and handed one over to him. "Here."

Izuku accepted them with a lingering sense of unworthiness."...Thank you." He proceeded to stare straight ahead of him, too nervous and a bit too ashamed to look at his mentor. When he realized that he had been merely holding his stick of cotton candy, he took a lick to not appear weird.

His flavor was one of strawberry.

"Young Midoriya…" All Might began. And Izuku could already tell the words that would follow. " The reason why I called you here today is because I wanted to talk to you about your performance in the U.A. entrance exam."

The boy felt his heart sink. At the same time, his mind had already started to make excuses.

He had hoped that something had gone wrong in the transferring process, or that perhaps he needed a larger sample of All Might's DNA.

But even with all the excuses and possible explanations in his head, his guilt only allowed him to say one thing—the one consistent phrase that had crept itself between each item of his mind's list.

"I'm so sorry."

To All Might's credit, he sounded calm.

"What are you apologizing for?"

Izuku wasn't sure how to proceed. Was this going to lead up to a "I'm not angry, I'm only disappointed" moment with All Might?

For the second time in the night, Izuku found himself wanting to dig a hole and lay in it.

He hesitated for a second, before blurting out a phrase. The words came out of him like diarrhea. One could barely tell which words the sentence began and which word it ended on. "ImsorrythatIwasntabletousethepowerthatyougaveme."

All Might merely smiled. "Relax, Young Midoriya. I'm not here to berate you. I simply wanted to know why you didn't utilize the power of One for All during the entrance exam. That would have been a perfect opportunity to show everyone what you got! Did you forget to squeeze your buttocks?"

Izuku looked at him with wide eyes. _Was that a joke?_

The boy gesticulated defensively. "No! I did! I squeeze my buttocks as tight as I could!"

Never in his life did he think he would be saying this sentence.

Then he stopped flailing his arms around and turned pensive, his eye digging straight into the floor, as if pinned onto it. "It is just, for some reason, the power just...didn't come out."

"That is strange…" All Might trailed off, his head tilted towards the sky above them, and a hand placed over his heart. The darkness of his eyes seemed to have gotten larger. "I am sure that One for All got passed off successively. Even now I can feel the embers of One for All waning within me."

Izuku didn't like where this conversation was going. Cold sweat started to pour down his face. "I'm so sorry." He repeated. "I don't know what's wrong with my body…"

That wasn't the truth. He was always aware of the faults of his body. He had known since his mother brought him to the doctor. Others around him didn't allow him to forget, either.

His body was one that failed to evolve. The one that was too weak to defend himself. The one that failed to manifest a quirk.

And now, it very well could be the one that wasted the legacy of the world's greatest hero.

 _If only All Might had run into someone else that day…  
_

"If you will excuse me, young Midoriya."

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the voice of All Might. But before he could process what was happening, the man had already plucked three strands of hair off of his head. Then, the hero who had shone with so much dignity, even in his emaciated state, opened his mouth and swallowed them whole.

It was like watching a pretty girl pick her nose and eat her boogers.

"A-all Might?" He fumbled over his words. "What are you doing?"

When his beloved idol made a disgusted face, the boy's self-esteem only plummeted further.

"Say, young Midoriya..." The blonde choked out in between pained coughs. "Did you wash your hair this morning?"

Izuku flushed a deep red. If he had higher self-worth, he might have been offended. "O-of course, I did! It is probably just the dirt and sweat...you know...from running around and fighting the robots…"

All Might cleared his throat to bring the conversation back on course. "Anyways, strangely enough, I did not taste the power of One for All when I ate your hair just now."

 _Of course you didn't! All I tasted was lice when I ate your hair!_

But All Might's next words brought his short-lived indignance to a speedy halt.

"It is almost as if you have never received it at all..."

"I'm so sorry." The boy apologized once more. "What should we do?"

This time, even All Might had to take a moment to pick his words. "You said you don't have a quirk, correct?"

"...Yes. My doctor said that because I have two joints in my pinky toe, I will never have a quirk."

 _Ah yes…_ All Might nodded silently. _The death sentence for children's dreams...  
_

Still, things bothered him.

If One for All was no longer in his possession or the young boy's possession, then whose possession did it rest in?

Then there was the other thing…

Something about the boy felt odd to him. Something aside from his maniacal zeal for heroics.

All Might closed his eyes and his mind raced back to the events that took place months prior. To the time where the boy latched on to him after the defeat of the sludge villain.

He remembered it well...the drowning sensation that preluded the deflating of his body. It wasn't a sensation that he was familiar with. His body had failed him countless times when it came to his quirk, but that cold, nauseating, disorientating sensation was something that was completely foreign.

In one moment, the warmth and power of One for All was coursing through his blood, through his veins. Then, in the span of a breath, he felt absolutely nothing.

It was strange, the abruptness of it all.

He was certain that he could have held on to the power for a few more while.

The man's mind continued to move, moving towards the moment that he felt his power slip away. O _h right...it was…  
_  
All Might's eyes landed on the boy's hands.

It was just a hunch. An almost completely baseless hunch. But when nothing else made sense, he thought that even the most asinine of guesses were worth testing out. "Young Midoriya…" All Might stood up from his spot on the bench, his muscle mass expanding rapidly and snapping into the statuesque physique that had become his trademark.

Beside him, the boy shriveled, his body moving closer to each other, as if wanting to curl up into a ball. "All Might?" Izuku asked, eyes filled and brimming with awe and confusion.

But when the hero drew his fist back, the boy shut his eyes and braced for a certain death.

Only, nothing of consequence came of it. No pain, no agony. Just nudges on his hands that he barely felt.

Izuku opened his eyes to see All Might next to him. The man's body was shrouded in a blanket of vapors, and a bony hand was tapped lightly against his right one.

"Like I thought, boy. I think I might have gotten a good idea on what your quirk is."

Izuku blinked dumbly. _My quirk?_

"How can I have a quirk? The doctor said…"

All Might sighed and tousled his hair in frustration. He took his seat again. "I know what the doctor said and none of this makes any sense to me either. But at this point, we have no choice but to accept the facts presented to us."

The blonde man looked at his hand, the very same one that he used to make contact with the boy just a moment ago. "When I touched your right hand earlier, the power of One for All left me immediately. The same thing happened to me when we first met. But when I touched your left hand, nothing happened..."

Izuku didn't know how to add to the conversation. Everything he was hearing now was completely new to him. Would All Might even believe him if he told him that he didn't know? Or would All Might think of him as a liar who conned him out of his powers?

Instead of speaking, he just gulped nervously and waited for All Might to continue.

"It is possible that you have the ability to negate the quirks of others. At the very least, it is the ability of your right hand. The rest of your body could have a similar effect, and somehow One for All became lost in the midst of all that."

All Might cupped his chin with his thumb and index finger as he became lost in thought once more. There were still some things that didn't make sense, but at this time, this was the best guess that he could reach.

He set his hand down and peered into his protege's eyes. "And you are not aware of any of this before today?"

Izuku shook his head furiously, without him being aware, he started to gesture wildly again. He had a habit of doing so when flustered. "No. I really did not! I swear I did not! If I did…"

"Relax." All Might held out a pair of placating hands. "I believe you."

There was nothing that he could do except to trust at this point.

"In any case, I think it is best to assume that One for All is gone for now."

 _Gone._ Izuku didn't like the sound of that. _And it was all my fault..._

All Might placed both of his hands on the boy's shoulder, and for the first time this night, he smiled—a warm one that eased the self-loathing in Izuku's heart.

"It is not your fault, you didn't know." He soothed. "On the bright side, it turns out you have a pretty nifty quirk yourself. But without the power of One for All, you are going to have to work even harder than before."

"I don't regret running into you all those months ago. Even if you couldn't be the successor of my power, fate has lead me to a fine young man."

Izuku felt tears well up in his eyes.

"You're going to be a great hero one day. This much, I know for certain."

The boy started bawling after that. The floodgates had been opened and he couldn't shut it off.

Even at his ugliest, his most pathetic, All Might sat next to him, rubbing his back comfortingly while he buried his eyes into his sleeves.

"But I failed, All Might! I failed! I didn't accomplish anything even after you gave me everything!" He garbled out between his sobs. "To top it all off, I have lost your quirk! It is all because of me!"

All Might's comforting touches never stopped. "Defeating enemies is not all there is to being a hero. I'm sure the people at U.A. know that better than anyone. Like they always say, if there is a will, then there's a way. Everything is going to be just fine."

Izuku chose to believe in All Might's words. He forced himself to. He had to in order to move on.

When the boy managed to calm himself down a bit, All Might promptly excused himself by claiming that he had work to do.

With All Might gone, a heaviness settled itself in his heart once more.

But he knew that he couldn't let it weigh him down. If All Might couldn't defend the citizens of Japan with his powers anymore, then as the person responsible, he had to pick up the workload.

He clenched his fist with resolve. This time, he wouldn't let All Might down again.


	5. Chapter 5

When he got home, he went into the kitchen and grabbed himself a bottle of water.

After that, he greeted his mother and went upstairs. When he entered his room, he flopped down onto his bed and buried his face into his pillow.

He needed a moment to let everything sink in.

He decided to go over the facts first.

His inheritance of One for All as a resounding failure. Fact.

His loss of One for All and everything it symbolized. Fact.

All Might's time was limited as a hero. Fact.

The futility of everything if he continued to fail. Fact!

A five hit combo!

Should he just give up while the pressure was still manageable?

Perhaps just dig a hole in the ground and hide in it…

...forever.

He quickly shook such a pitiable idea out of his head. Didn't he already make up his mind to not let All Might down again?

And he wouldn't go back on his resolve, even if it killed him.

Izuku sat up on his bed and stared at his hands, his attention divided between them evenly.

All Might theorized his ability was one that disabled quirks.

But like the man himself pointed out, there were still a couple points of contradictions.

The best thing he could do at the moment was to figure out the true nature of his power. To do that, he needed to think back…

Izuku closed his eyes and shut out all that could distract him. _That's right, think back… Use your interactions with All Might as the foundation and propel yourself to the truth!_

The clock hands of his mind swung in reverse, and his memories started to rewind. Images flitted past him by the seconds, and for the next few minutes, he re-lived his past.

From the awe of meeting All Might, to the horror of the sludge villain, to the shock of Kachan's cruelty, to the depression of the quirkless. After a while, his mental time travel finally came to a stop, depositing him right at the moment of the first oddity.

He was once again his five year old self. Standing behind him was a sobbing child. And in front of him was Kachan, the most unpleasant person he had ever met.

He remembered that day well. The day where for the first time ever, Kachan left them alone without beating him to a pulp.

At the time, he had dismissed it as his body growing accustomed to the boy's blows. He thought that he wasn't hurt because he had gotten extra tough.

But was that really true?

Izuku opened his eyes again, bringing himself back to the present. He punched himself in the face and winced at the pain.

Probably not. Getting punched still felt as awful as ever.

A quirk that can nullify other people's quirk. Was that really his ability?

More signs were pointing towards it than not, at this point.

But if it wasn't, however infinitesimal the chance of that being, then what else could it be?

He needed to find out.

The boy hopped off his bed, made his way to his desk, turned on the lamp light, drew out a pen, pulled up a sheet, and stopped just before the tip of his pen met the white of his paper.

It was time to brainstorm.

If All Might's hypothesis was wrong, then what could his ability be?

Perhaps it was an ability to exist in a higher dimension and thus be immune to the happenings in the third dimension?

He quickly crossed the idea off of his paper for being too outlandish.

Ability to reduce the power of others?

Possible. It would explain why Kachan's strikes failed to hurt him. It wasn't that he had gotten tougher, but simply that Kachan got weaker.

He left a circle on that one and labeled it as a "maybe" in his mind. He would be sure to revisit this idea later on.

Ability to shift between zero and one?

Izuku forced himself to stop. That one didn't even sound remotely related. If he kept wandering down this route, he might end up with a really big head.

For the time being, he would just operate on the basis that "nullifying other people's quirks by touch" was all he could do.

Next, he needed to think of an effective fighting style. The simpler, the better.

Izuku pulled out his notebooks, and flipped each one cover to cover.

His ability had some similarity to those of Eraserhead. Perhaps it would do him well to reference the man's fighting style…

His eyes traveled down the lines on Eraserhead's page, towards the lines that documented the man's weapons.

"A capture weapon made of carbon fibers and a special alloy wire." He repeated the line aloud. Even though it looked just like bandages, it seemed that there was more to the weapon…

Where should he go to obtain such a weapon though.

Even if he could obtain it, would using it make him liable for a gimmick infringement lawsuit?

Maybe he could practice with a roll of toilet paper for now. It shouldn't be too dissimilar in concept…

What did he have to lose in giving it a try?

He found the answer half an hour later, when his room was covered in strings of toilet paper, and he was still nowhere close to figuring out the trick in Eraserhead's movements.

After he cleaned the mess up, he decided it would be best to just continue working on his body. With a quirk as limited as his, he needed a way to catch his enemies to even put it into use.

He stuck with that plan until the day he received a letter from U.A. high school.

* * *

His anxiety faded away on the first day of school. By an almost divine intervention, he managed to get accepted into the academy.

He still remembered it well, the moment the message arrived by his doorstep. The moment he opened the package and a projection of All Might burst into his room. The moment All Might opened his mouth and scared him into thinking he was rejected.

The moment that All Might finally decided to tell him that he passed. The moment he saw the video of the brave brunette who came to vouch for him. The panel of judges who was willing to give him a chance.

It was all so fast paced that his brain almost couldn't catch up. Everything was so exhilarating!

At the end of it, all he could feel was a dizzying, drunkening jubilance. As if he had been on a rollercoaster ride of his life.

Now, Izuku once again found himself standing in front of the U-shaped building, taking in all of its magnificence with his eyes. This time, he was not an aspiring entrant, but as an official student. Not as a boy waiting anxiously on the starting line, but a man who had taken off in a sprint.

He fastened his grip on his bag straps and took a series of steps forward, his feet carrying him up the stairs and through the doors. To his surprise, he didn't even trip once.

Izuku let loose a breath that he didn't know he was holding and wiped the sweat off his head. This day was already better than the day of the entrance exam.

He turned his head to the left, then to the right, hoping to catch sight of the brave, kind girl who came to his defense. Though amidst the sea of students, the familiar brown hair and big round brown eyes were nowhere to be seen.

With a nervous anticipation, Izuku made his way to his homeroom, all the while hoping to avoid the misfortune of being placed in the same classroom as the unpleasant people from exam day.

To his dismay, both of them were in his class. And by the sound of it, they were arguing.

Nervously, he peeked inside. Surely enough, both men were in the midst of a heated disagreement. From what he could gather, this all stemmed from Kachan's refusal to put his legs off the table.

 _What a strange thing to fight over..._

Kachan didn't seem to enjoy seeing him walk into the classroom. His angry face seemed to have gotten meaner.

Luckily, the entrance of the cute brunette spared him the pleasure of having to converse with Kachan.

Their conversation didn't go as well as he hoped, though. On her part, she complimented him on his heroics, and on his, he awkwardly tried to not focus too much on the girl's uniform.

Last thing he wanted was to come off as a pervert.

He quickly lost his chance to make a better impression, when someone spoke from behind the girl.

"This is not the time to socialize." The voice was monotone, almost bored.

Deku looked past the girl's shoulders, catching sight of what seemed to be a caterpillar with a human face. Only on a second glance, did he realize that it was simply a man wearing a sleeping sack.

His memories told him that the one who spoke was Shota Aizawa —the man behind the persona of Eraserhead.

What followed was a tirade on them for wasting their time and a demand for them to get into their gym uniforms.

Then, came the words that sent the words that sent chills down his spine.

"What we're going to be doing now is participate in eight physical exams. You will be free to use your quirks. And the person who scores the lowest, will be _expelled_ …"

The instructor's words alarmed him and Izuku was quick to raise his arm into the air. "What if your quirk is not one that can improve your performances-"

"Tough break." The instructor interjected coldly as he gave a noncommittal shrug—as if he couldn't be bothered to give a crap. "You will just have to figure it out."

Behind him, he could hear Bakugo snicker. "I'm not sure how a quirkless loser managed to sneak in here, but it seems like this is the end of the line for you." The boy then grabbed his uniform, swung it over his shoulders, gave him one last antagonizing sneer, before heading to the gym.

"I will see you out there in the field, loser…"

* * *

Izuku Midoriya kept his eyes on his hands as he lined up at the track field. The first trial Mr. Aizawa lined up for him was a 50 meters dash. If he could tag someone and turn off their ability to use their quirks…

The boy quickly shook the idea out of his mind. Doing so wouldn't be very hero like.

He snuck a glance at their homeroom teacher, only to quickly turn away when the man glared back.

He had a feeling that the instructor would disqualify him on the grounds of sabotaging his classmates anyway… This was quite the dilemma...

Soon, it was his turn to run the track. And of course, life had decided to place Kachan as his running partner.

In an instant, Kachan wheezed past him, a burst of explosion propelling him forward. As for Izuku, he was left to play catch up.

At the end of it, when the teacher displayed their results, he was surprised that his time was the fifth best...

The rest of the activities came surprisingly easy.

In fact, he would say he even breezed through it.

But, through it all, Mr. Aizawa stoney face never shifted. Not even a nod of acknowledgement as he passed trials after trials. This fact, was what disconcerted Izuku to no end.

Finally, it was his turn to throw the baseball.

The kind brunette had gone before him and achieved a score of infinity.

Obviously, he was under no delusions that he would be able to do the same, but if he could just achieve a respectable score, then he could at least ensure a good spot on the class rankings.

Before he could throw, Mr. Aizawa interrupted him and brought him to a halt.

"Mr. Midoriya, I have to say your physical abilities are quite impressive." The man set his gaze at his clipboard. "At this rate, I have to say you would rank in the top ten. No...in fact... I would even place you on the top eight of the class. But…"

The man set turned his attention back on him, his bloodshot eyes letting out a dull light of menace. "I noticed that you didn't use your quirk even once…To be honest, I don't know what to think of this…"

Izuku felt his legs lose strength. After he made it all the way here, was he going to get sent back to the starting line again?

"While I do commend you for honing your body to overcome whatever shortcoming your quirk might have, mere physicality alone will not get you far as a hero…"

He wished the man would stop talking at that point. But, as if ignorant or uncaring of his feelings, the teacher carried on.

"Just because your quirk places some limitations on you, to not even attempt to find a way around it... Surely this rigid mindset shouldn't be allowed..."

"...If you cannot, then I'm afraid I will have to disqualify you. From there on, you can consider enrolling in a separate program. General Studies might be a good place to start…"

Midoriya shut his eyes, the words he wished were not spoken now ringing through his head.

"Well?" Aizawa angled his head to the side as he awaited a response. "Can you or can you not?"

From the sidelines, Izuku could hear someone laugh. Even without his sight, he could tell that it was Kachan.

"Of course, that guy can't! He is a quirkless loser who somehow managed to get in here! I don't know how he managed, but he is getting exposed as a fraud now!"

Izuku wanted to rebuke him. To tell him that he was wrong. But at this time, he wasn't sure if he could. The boy's hand tightened around the baseball, gripping it until he could feel his hand bruise. Finally, he took in a sharp breath, his eyes opening once more.

"I can." He tried his best to keep his answer resolute, to fight off the quiver of his voice.

"Oh?" A glimmering interest lit up Aizawa's bloodshot eyes. "I look forward to it." His voice lacked enthusiasm, but in its place, it was packed with challenging expectations, as if daring him to show him something interesting.

His answer was a mere bluff. But at this crucial moment, he had to make his lie a truth.

Though it was true he didn't manage to awaken One for All during the weeks leading up to his enrollment, and neither did he manage to discover the true nature of his quirk. It was undeniable that everything that he did accomplish was produced through his own hard work.

It was because he stuck to a plan that he managed to outclass most of his classmates… If he faltered, he would just be back to square one—neither accomplishing anything, nor progressing. He'd be stuck in a perpetual limbo where his visions would never reach reality.

It was time to do or die...

Izuku clasped the baseball with both of his hands and reared his body backwards, as if he was a professional pitcher. Then he tossed, the ball jetting through the air, before disappearing behind the clouds.

Aizawa held out the display for all to see. The lemniscate line reflected on the glassy surface caused everyone's jaws to slack from awe.

The kind brown haired girl was the first one to recover. Her mouth closed slowly, before it opened again. "Infinity...just like mine…"

Aizawa sent a lazy glance towards the clipboard that he held in his hands.

 _That isn't what's written here…_ The corner of his lips jerked up ever so slightly. _How interesting..._

Izuku's eyes remained fixed at the sky, stupefied at his own strength. When the shock waned, he directed his attention to his hand, staring at it with comically bulging eyes.

What he did just now... was it One for All? No…it couldn't be. He didn't feel like he had gotten stronger at all.

The only thing he felt... was the lingering painful plainess that had haunted him all his life.

On the part of Katsuki Bakugo, his earlier hubris had given way to the same jaw dropping shock that plagued everyone else. Just as everyone recovered, Bakugo's anger escalated. He felt like he was about to blow a gasket. The veins on his head became more prominent and visible, all the while his face reddened from the pure rage burning inside of him. _Infinity...that's greater than mine!_

"Oi…what was up with that you shitty nerd?" The blonde boy stomped towards the freckled boy and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, catching him by surprise. "You have been hiding that power from me this entire time?!"

Katsuki reared his free hand back, his palm lightening up with explosive embers.

"Kachan, wait!" The loser in his grip held two weak shaky hands forward to try and deter him, but Katsuki Bakugo ain't waiting. He threw his hand forward, aiming to blast the idiot's face off and his dumb freckles with it. Though he found himself unable to indulge in his violent desires as a slew of what appeared to be bandages held him in place.

The blonde delinquent grunted against his restraints, but when they wouldn't give, he shifted his head to glare a hole into his attacker.

"That's enough! I will not allow needless violence in my class." Like he suspected, the manipulator of the bandages was their stuck up instructor, whose hair stood in the air, as if lifted by invisible strings.

Faced with an unbreakable restraint, Katsuki reluctantly allowed himself to settle down. But after this, he would for sure corner the freckled wimp and beat an answer out of him.

What filled the next few minutes was the teacher's anti-climatic reveal that this entire exercise was a joke that the teacher decided to play on them.

Izuku was relieved. He didn't want any of his classmates to be expelled. Katsuki simply scoffed in annoyance, disappointed in the total waste of time that he had been put through.

They returned inside for the remainder of the class.

* * *

After school, as he left to make his way to the gym. The cute brunette in his class caught up to him. He remembered her name as Ochaco Uraraka—a cute name for a cute girl.

"Are you heading home, Deku-kun?" The girl practically hopped right next to him. The closeness of their face and her intense eye contact causing him to blush.

 _Deku? Did she pick that up from Kachan? Should I correct her later?_

"No, I, uh...I'm going to the gym. Y-you know to work out and stuff." He managed to vomit out a response.

"Hmmm… Deku-kun sure is busy…"

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing!" She chirped. "It just feels like you're in a hurry to get somewhere. Normally students would want to hang out with their friends and go to the arcade, but Deku-kun is heading straight to the gym all alone."

Of course…

...he had to!

All Might's time as a hero was limited. If he slacked off right now, then...

"It is almost like you're a hero with a secret identity, going off somewhere to save the world. By day time, you're a student, and by night time, you're a masked vigilante. Maybe you have some great expectations that you need to fulfill." She mused and inched closer to his face. Izuku's heart was pounding so fast that he thought it would burst. "Tell me, what is your secret?"

"W-what are you saying, Uraraka-san?" He quickly pulled himself away. "I'm just your ordinary high school student."

The brunette laughed, then graced him with a smile that was brighter than the shine of a thousand suns.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, Izuku-kun is kind of cool."

* * *

Like he expected, U.A. High School was filled with surprises. Just the very next day, All Might himself burst into their homeroom and announced that they were doing a battle simulation.

Now, he stood face to face, with his childhood bully, in the middle of a cramped hallway. He gripped his improvised weapon, a bamboo sword, something that he requested from the hero support.

In front of him, Katsuki's face contorted, resembling the maw of a demon. "I'm looking forward to beating the shit out of you."


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I finally hit 10k in word count. Thank you all for the support.

* * *

Izuku panted heavily on the spot, half of his face exposed from Katsuki's sneak attack from earlier.

Their goal for the day was simple. Everyone in his class was divided up in two-men cells, with each team assigned with the role of "hero" or "villain."

The heroes were given the task of capturing the villains and securing the nuclear weapon in the villain's possession, while the villains were given the task of avoiding capture for fifteen minutes as well as protecting their missile.

For his team to win, he could incapacitate the villains in the allotted time, wrap them up in the capture tape, or even steal the nuclear weapon away from the villains.

None of these tasks were going to be easy to accomplish. Not with Katsuki on the opposing team.

Of course, he could try and double team against Katsuki with Uraraka. But even then, he couldn't guarantee that they would have enough time to deal with Iida afterwards.

The best option at the moment was to divide and conquer. He would handle the far more rambunctious Katsuki and leave the more disciplined Iida to Uraraka.

Izuku shot his teammate a look. "Uraraka-san, you go ahead first! I will handle Ka-chan over here."

Uraraka gave a nod and ran past Katsuki, who seemed to have paid her no mind. "Deku-kun, you hurry up too!"

A feeling of relief came over him as he saw that Uraraka had gotten away safely. But soon, he was confronted with the problem of Katsuki Bakugo.

"Well, you went ahead and said it, didn't you? You nerd!" Bakugo boomed in front of him, an open palm jetting from the right and curving towards the left, heading straight towards Izuku's face.

The boy countered instinctively, leaning away while blocking the ensuing explosion with his right hand. _Yup. Block and nullify_!

No recoil, no heat, no pain. It was like he was touching air.

The corner of Bakugo's eyes twitched in irritation.

There it was again, the unknown power that the loser had been hiding from him. Somehow, his explosions weren't hurting him.

Katsuki stepped away, turned on his heels and threw a kick that forced his opponent to back off.

 _Now that I think about it, something similar to this happened when we were still children!_ Katsuki scowled, a frustrated cry building inside of him, until he finally couldn't contain it anymore. "What are you hiding from me, you shitty nerd!?"

Izuku's lips trembled. Years of abuse had conditioned him to feel nervous whenever Katsuki got angry. Even now, as they were placed in direct competition with each other, he still couldn't ignore the twisting sensation in his guts.

He replied, voice shaking slightly. "I-I'm not hiding anything from you, Ka-chan!"

That weak explanation wasn't to Katsuki's liking. Not one bit. "Fine, if you're not going to tell me, I will just beat it out of you!"

Katsuki was in Deku's face again the next moment. A flurry of punches crossing towards a retreating Izuku.

This wasn't going in the way that Izuku wanted it to go either. His chance of winning would go down drastically if he let things turn into a straight up brawl.

He wanted to rely on sharp precise strikes to win this contest. That was the reason why he picked a bamboo sword as his weapon of choice to begin with. His weapon was enough to stun, but not enough to maim. A perfect weapon for an aspiring hero.

Plus, against someone like Katsuki who liked to get close and personal, the sword would serve as a deterrent. Katsuki liked to set off explosions roughly an inch from his opponent to maximize damage. Izuku knew that if he could manage to keep Katsuki from getting closer, then his chance of victory would increase favorably.

He just had to stun Katsuki enough to wrap him up with the capturing tape.

Having avoided yet another swipe towards his head, Izuku quickly dropped down and swept a leg towards Katsuki's base, with the hope of disrupting his footing.

Katsuki jumped away to dodge the low angle attack before rocketing himself forward, one of his legs raised angularly into the air and quickly axed down sharply to try and crush the green-clad combatant.

Izuku managed to roll away just in time to avoid getting crushed. But, Katsuki was persistent.

Like an unrelenting predator who hadn't fed in days, the blonde boy followed him. Letting lose another round of explosions to catch up to him, Katsuki nailed Izuku with a sharp kick to the ribs that sent the boy tumbling down the hall.

Izuku flipped onto his stomach when he came to a stop, his grip on his sword tightened as he pushed himself back up. When he adjusted his sight, Katsuki was once again zooming towards him

A right hook whooshed past him as he narrowly side-stepped, but a left hook was quick to follow.

Izuku backed off to avoid the blow, then sprinted into a leap. A swinging kick was blocked by the twin bracers on Katsuki's arm, but the blonde delinquent had no counter when Izuku spun off his bracers, and whirled his bamboo sword straight into his face.

This time the hit was solid, and was hard enough to knock the usually steadfast Katsuki onto the floor.

Izuku landed on the floor as well, his bamboo sword still held tightly in front of him in a ready stance. Hitting a living thing felt horrible, but he knew he must continue.

In front of him, Katsuki slowly rose back to his feet, a hand wiping off the blood that flowed from his mouth. For an instant, Izuku wondered if he might have hit the boy a bit too hard.

"That was a lucky hit..." Katsuki growled as he spat out a splintered tooth. A murderous glint now inhabiting his eyes. The boy threw his arms violently behind him, fiery embers blasting backwards while his body blurred forward from the sheer speed.

"BUT THIS TIME, IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN!"

The bold declaration was backed up well. Against Katsuki's frightening speed, Izuku could only tighten his grip on his sword, holding onto it as if it was a lifeline. A wave of panic washed over him as Katsuki drew closer and closer to him. Katsuki was getting faster, and undisputedly angrier.

When it felt that Katsuki was close enough, Izuku swung, his bamboo stick arching through the air. Only to hit...nothing…

Izuku's eyes tilted upwards, catching sight of Katsuki descending upon him from above. _The bastard had changed directions in midair! The moment I swung my sword, Ka-chan must have let loose another explosion that let him vault over my blade!_

Katsuki landed behind Izuku with a taunt."You think the same trick is going to work on me again, huh?!"

Before he could redirect his attack, Izuku found himself grabbed by the back of his mask.

"Eat this you fucking retard!" Katsuki pulled him backwards, hard enough that Izuku felt himself lifted up and over.

Katsuki was just as inhumanly strong as Izuku remembered him to be.

Izuku landed harshly on his knees against the concrete, ending in a kneeling position in front of his enemy. He didn't have much time to fixate on his wounds, as a feeling of urgency overwhelmed him.

 _Oh crap..._

The boy raised his arms to his face and blocked the incoming running knee strike. Then ducked under to avoid a roundhouse kick. He then kicked out Bakugo's legs, causing his attacker to face-plant on the floor.

Izuku took this opportunity to rise to a vertical basis again. When he did, he returned the favor from earlier and blasted Katsuki with a kick of his own, though his, was to the face.

It was now his turn to be the aggressor. Izuku rushed over to the recovering Katsuki and tried to grab the boy by the head.

 _If I can prevent Ka-chan from activating his quirk, then I…_

He didn't even get to finish his thoughts when Katsuki suddenly rocketed away towards the ceiling.

Quickly and smoothly, Katsuki whirled and flipped himself in midair, maneuvering himself in position to rocket headfirst towards his enemy once more.

Izuku swung his blade, once again hitting nothing as Katsuki dodged. But, this time, Izuku was prepared.

Izuku, too, took it into the air, using his feet to kick off the ceiling and shot right after Katsuki. As Katsuki turned his head to observe his movements, all that was reflected in his eyes was the nearing blade of Izuku's sword.

The impact was loud, fierce, and sufficient enough to swat Katsuki out of the air, his head thudding terribly against the floor on the way down.

"How is this possible..." Katsuki drawled, a hand placed on his throbbing head. He was starting to lose his patience. His eyes growing more bloodshot by the second from the sheer frustration of it all. "You were supposed to just be a pebble on my path!"

Yet, despite this, the loser managed to not only hit him once, not only twice, but FOUR times already.

Bakugo blasted off again. Embers rapidly shooting off his palms as he zigzagged across the room. His movement this time was a lot more spontaneous and erratic, with him bouncing from wall to wall, ceiling to ceiling, and one end of the room to another.

Once again, Izuku found himself unable to keep up.

Katsuki nabbed Izuku by the mask of his costume once more. Like before, Katsuki pulled him over his back and onto the floor.

Then with his explosions boosting his speed, Katsuki slammed his knee onto him, breaking straight through the two arms that Izuku had brought up to defend himself with and hitting the boy straight in the nose.

Blood was drawn immediately as they gushed from both of his nostrils. Izuku wondered if his nose could be broken even as he fell limply onto his back. The sword that he previously held onto so dearly also dropped to the side.

Bakugo stomped over, kicked the bamboo sword away, and lifted Izuku's up by the hair, only to have his arms swiped away defiantly by Izuku. Katsuki threw a punch, Izuku leaned away, and kicked Katsuki off.

Katsuki flew. His movement still erratic and sporadic, zipping from wall to wall and making it impossible for Izuku to track him.

Izuku instead focused his attention on retrieving the sword that Katsuki kicked away. Running towards the bamboo weapon even as he felt Katsuki's speeding presence brush past him over and over.

Katsuki appeared to be scared of making direct physical contact with him. Even though Katsuki was an indisputable douchebag,he was a shrewd douchebag. As much as he disliked him, he knew that Katsuki caught on to the secrets of his ability.

The fact that Katsuki had been grabbing him by his clothing after their first scuffle was indicative of that.

But it was this same shrewdness that made Katsuki predictable

The smart thing to do would be to cut off his mask so Katsuki wouldn't have anything to grab. But there was no way he could do that.

There was no way he could destroy something his mother made for him with his own hands.

And that heartless bastard probably counted on this fact.

But, this was where his own trap lied. Using his mask as bait, he would wait for Katsuki to come to him, and then, he would punch him with all his might.

 _Here he comes!_ Izuku spun around mid-sprint, his fist surging forward. Like he thought, Katsuki was right where he thought he would be. His fist connected, his punch crushing Katsuki's lips. It felt like he had squashed a grape with his knuckles.

Katsuki's eyes shot wide open from a mixture of pain and hatred, his face shifting slightly against the knuckles of Izuku's fist. _This bastard… He predicted my movements?!_

"ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!"

Katsuki let out a yell, one hand seizing Izuku's arm, the other grabbing the collar of his costume, and flipped the boy onto the floor.

Izuku felt the air knocked out of him as his back collided hard on the concrete. At this rate, he just might die here.

But he couldn't allow himself to lose. Not at this point. Not with All Might watching. Not with the kind brunette girl waiting for him on the second floor.

Now was the time to set his heart ablaze!

Izuku sprung up from the floor, pivoted his body, trapped Katsuki's arm with his own and flipped Katsuki onto the floor as well.

The green haired boy then broke into a run, rushing towards his supine enemy, hoping to strike him down with a kick. Bakugo raised his armored arms, suppressing the impact of the blow completely. The only thing that ached was Izuku's own leg.

 _I got too caught up in the moment and failed to think this through!_

Katsuki took the moment to tackle Izuku to the floor. Once they were both down, the blonde delinquent sat down on Izuku's stomach, pinning him underneath his weight.

With a face full of hatred, Katsuki punched at the boy underneath him. When his fist was caught, he quickly attempted to punch with his other one. When that one was caught as well, he spat in the boy's face then proceeded to engage in a power struggle with the blemish from his childhood.

"Give up already, Deku…." Katsuki hissed menacingly and drove his fists harder into the hands that opposed them.

"I...won't…"

"I _said…."_ Katsuki lifted his weight up slightly before quickly plunging down onto the poor boy's stomach. The blow forced a wad of saliva out of Izuku's body, as well as whatever air he still had. With his voice louder this time, he bellowed out his next intimidation. _" GIVE UP ALREADY!"_

 _Yup..._ Izuku thought as he felt his arms losing strength... _I'm going to die right here._

But even still, with whatever strength he still had, he gripped onto Katsuki's fists like a vice—tight enough that Katsuki found himself unable to pull himself away from Izuku's grasp.

Katsuki's patience was running thin. His words now quivered and trembled with fury that could no longer be contained. His face flushed bright red, his brows furrowed towards each other at an angle that seemed impossible, face scrunched to the extreme that he resembled an oni. "Stop wasting-"

He was cut off when Izuku roared. One that resembled the roar of a cornered animal. A primitive fear froze Katsuki in place. Moments later, his "seat cushion" was starting to elevate and Katsuki found himself lifted in the air.

 _What is happening?_ Katsuki looked beneath him, and his eyes widened at what he saw. _This punk is forcing his body to sit up even with me sitting on top of him._

Izuku's upper body angled more and more away from the floor, with his two bent feet serving as the base. Katsuki found his own feet lifted slightly from the floor, as Izuku rose, and eventually ended up sliding off the boy completely when Izuku made his way back onto his feet.

The toll on Izuku's body was evident through the paleness of his face, as well as the wobbles of his legs.

Katsuki ripped his fists away, quite easily this time. Once freed, he was quick to try to give his fist back to the boy, in the form of a punch.

To his surprise, the ailing competitor ducked, slipped under his armpit, over his back, grabbed his head in a front headlock and fell backwards to drop him down to the floor, head first.

It was like poetry in motion. Katsuki had little time to counter.

Taking the attack was, however, the furthest experience from being pleasant. And Katsuki quickly let everyone know as he writhed, squirmed, jerked, and rolled on the cold filthy floor, clutching his head while screaming profanities and wishes of death.

Izuku, however, forced himself through his own agony. Instead of crying, he started to make the torturous crawl towards the distant bamboo sword that he longed to retrieve.

Though the sword was probably just a couple of meters away, in his physical torment, meters felt like miles.

His back ached with something fierce. It felt like someone had stabbed him in the spine repeatedly with a burning knife.

"Damn you! Fuck you, you damn Deku! Fuck you to hell!"

The curses continued to come from behind him, but Izuku paid them no mind. Instead, he focused all his attention on the singular goal of reaching his weapon.

Black dotted spots stained his field of vision. He wasn't getting enough oxygen.

Still, he continued to drag himself forward, even as the ground that he wished to traverse became darker and darker.

Above him Uraraka-san was probably waiting for him. He couldn't afford to fall right here!

Finally, he seized it! The familiar texture of the weapon filling him with a shred of triumph.

 _I can win this!_ The boy grabbed his sword and struggled onto a squatting position. When he turned his head back to check on Katsuki, he found that the boy had already rocketed himself towards him.

The boy was like a relentless bloodhound!

Not in the right position to draw power from, Izuku's sword strike was no match from a rocket-boosted flying kick from Katsuki. Just like that, he found himself pinned under once more, this time stomped underneath Katsuki's feet, the bamboo sword he held in his hands the only thing separating Katsuki's boot from his throat.

Katsuki shifted more weight onto him, and the bamboo sword that was once a dependable shield, was now turning more into a lethal guillotine as it inched closer to his throat.

Izuku was struggling to breathe.

"How do you like that, you sorry sucker?! If you admit that I'm superior and beg me to spare you, then I just might consider at this point" Katsuki offered as he stomped at the bamboo sword repeatedly. "Even the strength of a professional bodybuilder won't be able to hold out against this kind of abuse for long. Never mind a piece of shit, shitstain-on-the-toilet-bowl bookworm like you!"

Deku gritted his teeth. He couldn't breathe. His muscles and bones were all screaming in protest. The damage he took throughout the fight had worn him down significantly. His nose was overwhelmed with the smell of blood.

If only he were stronger… If only he knew how to use his powers. If only he knew how to trigger the same infinity-achieving power that saved him during Aizawa's test. If only he knew how to use the same power that saved him from Katsuki when he was a child.

If only he had inherited One for All successfully.

"...Stop…"

"Huh… What did you say, you stupid Deku?" Bakugo cupped an ear and tilted his head towards him, mocking him.

"...Stop…." He gasped out.

"I can't hear you! Maybe this will get you to speak louder!" Katsuki extended his hands above him and unleashed twin bursts of explosions that forced his body downward, and the bamboo sword along with him.

The sword now dipped enough to leave a scratch on Deku's windpipe.

"The next one won't be as merciful… you loser…"

"...Stop…"

Bakugo's eyes bulged with malice. As if he was possessed by the devil. "You do _NOT_ get to tell me what to do! Just give up, leave this school and stay out of my sight!"

"Nothing you do will ever amount to anything! Know your place and just die already!" Katsuki fury leaked from him like water from a bottomless well.

Finally, he exploded. "ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?!"

Izuku didn't answer. Didn't even plea. Neither did he ask Katsuki to stop.

Darkness had edged out his vision at this point.

* * *

 _Where is this place?_

Izuku looked around him. One moment he was locked in a desperate struggle with Katsuki, the next moment he seemed to be back in…

The furniture around him looked familiar. As did the position of the T.V., the color of the curtain, the pattern of the floor tile, the aroma of freshly made All-Might Golden Sandwich.

The color of the world was a dull gray, as if he was watching something from a silent film.

He was back home?

For some reason, he decided to walk towards the kitchen, as if drawn by a mythical, arcane force.

There, crouched in between the corner of two cabinets was...a younger version of himself?

Was this a childhood memory of himself?

Perhaps this was what people meant when they claimed that their entire life flashed before their eyes while on the verge of death.

He remembered the explanation was that while in a life threatening situation, the human brain will search the past to find any information that will help its host survive.

Izuku walked over to his child self, and crouched down in front of him. The little kid was dressed in an All Might T-Shirt, his hair a mess, his arms wrapped around his bandaged knees, and tear stains trailed from eyes that appeared to be made from pure glass.

Had he been crying? Did he get in a fight? Did he always look this unsightly?

The him of the past didn't seem to have noticed him. Perhaps he couldn't see him?

He had no recollection of this memory. When was this? When did it take place? He couldn't place himself in this part of his history.

Then he spotted it, a lantern on the right side of the unresponsive boy. Inside the lantern, there was a sculpture of ice in the shape of a flame.

Or perhaps it was a ball of flame that had somehow been frozen?

He couldn't tell.

Honestly, it could be either way.

Why was the flame frozen? Whose path was the lantern supposed to light up? Did he have something like that when he was a kid?

Somehow, he had a feeling that the thing in the lantern contained what he desired.

* * *

"Oi. Are you listening, idiot Deku?" Katsuki looked down. For the past minute, the boy was motionless, instead staring blankly ahead, as if catatonic.

Almost uncharacteristically, Katsuki was concerned. He let up a little bit on the weight that he was placing on the bamboo and waited to see if the boy was still alive.

But when the corner of the boy's eye twitched, Katsuki was back on guard once again. His usual,

malicious vigor returning in haste.

"Sorry, Deku! That was your last chance to make your decision." Katsuki threw his arms behind him again, aiming to ignite his sweat. But nothing came, his sweat wouldn't explode.

Impossible...Katsuki lowered his gaze again. His foot was still only on the bamboo sword, neither of Deku's hands were touching him directly. Yet, he couldn't activate his quirk...

Why?

The boy didn't have much time to linger on that thought, as Izuku pushed up at him with a strength that Katsuki never experienced before. Within moments, the blonde delinquent found himself tipped over and falling straight on his back.

He was smart enough to use his backward momentum to roll onto his feet, but by the time he stood up, Izuku had gotten up as well.

Katsuki leapt back three large strides, and aimed one of his grenadier bracers at Izuku.

The cockroach just wouldn't die, he had no choice but to bust out the big guns.

"It feels like it has been filled up plenty..." Katsuki gauged as he shook his bracers a little bit, feeling the sweat swivel around inside the cartridge.

With his other hand, he pulled at the pin that consisted of the trigger mechanism.

In just a moment, he would blow the roof off of this building.

Deku stood still. Unfazed. His hand held tight around his sword, his body unmoving in front of the roaring ball of searing flames, that even now continued to burn towards him.

He breathed. Allowing his body to relax. The bamboo sword in his hands turned bright red.

Then with a wave of the blade, he cleaved right through the ball of flames. Scattered embers danced around him, like fireflies on a summer night. In the midst, he resembled a graceful celestial paladin, or even a vengeful wraith of fire.

Even Katsuki had to admire the sight.

The admiration was quick to turn into fear as Deku blurred past him, and he found his body with seven lashes that he didn't have just a moment ago. His eyes almost rolled to the back of his head.

"No…" Izuku's voice rung through Katsuki's ears. " You're the one who won't be able to affect the future."


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I hope everyone stays safe.

* * *

When he was a child he remembered his teacher asking them for their favorite number.

For some reason… he answered with the number zero…

Why was that? He couldn't remember.

"It is because Deku can't do anything!"

"I bet zero is all he's going to get on his exams!"

The memory was a bit too distant for him to recall. Not that it mattered to him at this point.

* * *

"You're the one who won't be able to affect the future."."

Bakugo stood on wobbled legs, his previous bravado all but disappeared. The welts on his body felt burned on by flames, and his body ached with a new kind of agony.

He hadn't been beaten up this bad since the last time he pissed off his mother.

The boy forced himself to still, drew strength from anger like he always did, whipped his body around and shot off his rebuttal.

"What did you say to me, you little shit?!"

In the next moment, he wasn't sure if he had spoken at all.

"What did you say to me, you little-"

What were the words he said before?

He was on wobbly legs again.

Bakugo forced himself to still, before scrambling after the green swordsman. He stretched out a hand to try and seize the boy, to turn him around and demand an explanation for this strange phenomenon.

He was back on wobbly legs again. The swordsman that he tried to reach remained just as far as he was seconds ago. It was as if he never ran at all, or even ran backwards.

He forced his legs to still.

He was back on wobbly legs again.

 _A loop!_ He realized. _I'm stuck in a loop! Everything I tried to do is looped back to the beginning as if it never happened at all!_

He was back on wobbly legs again. Did he realize something important?

* * *

All Might watched the contest unfold from the comfort of the monitor room, his arms folded in front of his chest. His brows furrowed into an intense scowl as he took in the happenings.

That young Bakugo was really something else.

The depths that the boy was willing to go through just to achieve victory was almost disturbing. In a way it was almost a corruption of the school's "Plus Ultra" motto.

"Bakugo, if you take things too far again, I will be forced to disqualify you!" He spoke into his portable radio. He only got silence as a response.

In any case, this contest appeared to be getting out of hand. As the instructor in charge, it was his duty to call it off for the safety of his students. But as a spectator, he wanted to see it through. He wanted to see what Young Midoriya could bring to the table.

"Oi." Kaminari pointed a finger at the monitor. "Bakugo has been standing in the same place for about a minute. Is he alright?"

All Might looked towards the light yellow pixels on the screen. Kaminari was right, Bakugo hadn't moved in a while.

The man shifted his eyes back towards the green pixels. On the other hand, Young Midoriya was on the move.

* * *

Izuku breathed laboriously as he climbed the stairs. His head filled with a strange dizziness. Exhaustion was starting to kick in, and his back felt like it was going to snap in half.

His hands felt cold, as if they were clasping around a block of ice rather than a piece of wood.

Yet, somehow, he knew if he let go, he would lose something important to him.

By some miracle, he was still fighting—much unlike his childhood bully who seemed to have entered an unresponsive daze.

Perhaps he hit him too hard during their last exchange. He ought to give an apology once all this was over. Or perhaps not. An apology would likely get Katsuki more worked up than usual.

Izuku was worried though. Not so much about what Katsuki would say or do to him afterwards, but about the petite brunette who had been fighting for his sake.

He only hoped that there was enough time left over for him to make a difference.

The boy looked downward towards the crimson sword he held in his hands. A sense of infinite possibilities flowing through him.

Somehow, despite the odds and the dwindling time, he felt like they just might be able to make it through this.

By the time he rounded the corners of the staircase, Uraraka was on the floor, having been overwhelmed by the armored speedster.

Standing tall a few meters away from her was the dignified class representative, now dressed like some sort of cybernetic knight.

The division of the room was visible and evident. The room to the left side of the staircase was undisputedly Iida's territory. Befitting its owner's dominance, Iida's side was packed to the brim with various tools, toys, shelves, and general household items. Sticking out from the midst of the pile was the rocket shaped nuclear weapon that the hero team was tasked to secure.

Existing in almost stark contrast, the room to the right side of the staircase, where Uraraka was, was bare and empty, save for the existence of a girl who was at her wit's end.

Izuku turned his attention back to Iida again, who seemed to have not picked up on his presence in his endeavor to talk Uraraka into giving up her struggle.

A part of him was glad that Iida was gentle enough to not kick someone while they were down. The more competitive part of him was annoyed by the boy's confidence.

Maybe he should take advantage of this opportunity and make a run for the nuclear weapon while the class rep was still distracted?

Yup. That idea sounded a lot better than getting in yet another dragged out fight.

He just had to run fast. Like how he did against Katsuki earlier!

Izuku measured the distance between himself and the nuclear weapon.

 _Two seconds…_

 _No one second will be more than enough!_

Then, much to his chagrin, Iida turned his head towards the staircase and spotted him.

"Midoriya-kun?" Iida's questioning voice seeped from the holes of his helmet. Izuku quickly held the bamboo sword in front of him.

He couldn't tell what Iida's expression was underneath the helmet, but in that instant, he knew Iida figured the situation out and realized that he was at a disadvantage.

Nothing supported his theory more than when Iida sped towards him and hit him with a kick that he barely managed to block with his bamboo sword.

It seemed that once Iida knew that he was in a two-on-one situation, the class rep quickly abandoned his previous passiveness and took on a more aggressive approach.

The force of the blow was heavy and Izuku was barely able to keep his hold on his sword.

The previous strength that he exhibited against Katsuki was nowhere to be seen as Izuku struggled on with fingers that felt like they were blocks of ice.

He was losing feeling in both of his hands. His previous iron tight grip on the wooden weapon now more closely resembled the feeble grasp of a newborn infant.

 _Did I suffer some nerve damage from my previous scuffle with Katsuki?_ He wondered as he clenched and gnashed his teeth against each other in exertion. _Maybe I got slammed one too many times on my back during the fight?_

Whatever the case, he knew that this was no time to dawdle on the details. The green clad combatant unclenched his teeth and shouted to his teammate. "Uraraka-san!"

"Got it!" The brunette replied as she scampered off the floor, making quick strides towards the nuclear weapon.

She didn't make it far as Iida sped away from Izuku and knocked her away with a kick, drawing a sharp yelp from her as she cried out in pain.

"Tsk." Izuku tutted his tongue in annoyance. " Damn it!"

He ripped his lingering eyes away from the fallen Uraraka, knowing that it was up to him to secure the weapon once more. But even as he set his eyes on the oversized rocket, he could see the class rep gaining on him from the peripherals of his vision.

It was at that moment, Izuku realized that to truly accomplish anything, he had to take the class rep down first.

Izuku took on a combative stance, the crimson bamboo held firmly to his right, his two eyes locked determinedly onto his newest obstacle.

Iida was fast, yet slow. Despite his head start, it was Izuku who struck first.

With one foot tapping off the ground, the freckled student sped forward, his sword clashing onto his opponent's chest like a scarlet lightning bolt.

Izuku dropped onto one knee to stop his momentum, the sword no longer in his hands. His eyes however reflected no triumph, but instead were mirrors of fear.

A spin kick to the side of the head quickly leveled the boy, as Iida, who was supposed to be done in, stood tall over his opponent.

"Sorry, Midoriya-kun… This is part of the exercise. Nothing personal." Iida offered his condolences as he stared down at him.

None of it made it into Izuku's heart though as the boy replayed the events of the past seconds.

Like he feared, his grip on the sword wasn't strong enough. The moment he swung it, it was pushed out of his hands with little resistance.

Izuku turned his head slightly, just enough to observe the chest plate of Iida's armor. A sizable crack could be seen stretching diagonally from each end of the plating. But it wasn't what Izuku intended.

He had planned on taking the class rep out of the contest with that blow. However, unlike the case with Bakugo, he didn't even touch the flesh.

 _Give it back…_

Izuku's eyes widened, his hands clutching his head. _Whose thought was that?_

Then, he felt something being ripped away from him. Something important.

Yet, strangely enough, he felt something returned to him as well.

His hands.

They were no longer plagued with the feeling of chthonic cold. His fingers felt pliable once more. The numbness that previously haunted him was effectively lifted away.

From the corner of his vision, Izuku saw Uraraka roll back onto her feet, and silently prayed for her success as he watched her book it towards the nuclear weapon.

Much to his distress, Iida knocked her back on her butt again. This time, when she fell, she fell right next to him.

They were getting nowhere fast.

"Sorry, Midoriya-kun and Uraraka-kun. But I can't let you reach the weapon. I hope you guys won't hold this against me in the future."

"Hehe…" Uraraka chuckled as she rose back to her feet, a hand wiping away the sweats that held her brown locks in disarray, the other shooting her class rep a thumbs up. "It is no big deal! This is the essence of competition after all! Besides, I know class rep has been pulling his punches on me!"

"Ehhhh?!" Midoriya's eyes went round with surprise on this one, he too rose back onto his feet. "Iida-kun should go a little bit easier on me as well!"

Iida puffed up his chest. "If you're a man, then stop complaining!"

"Come on...don't say that…" Izuku whimpered weakly. He just wanted someone to treat him gently too.

"Anyway, I have been wondering…" Iida looked intently at Izuku. "What happened to Bakugo-kun? Did you defeat him?"

"Y-yeah…I guess you could say that…" Izuku scratched the back of his head sheepishly. Even he wasn't too sure about what happened down there.

"Then that's even more of a reason that I can't take you lightly!"

Izuku frowned.

"Wow!" Uraraka turned towards her teammate, eyes sparkling with newfound admiration. "You defeated Bakugo-kun?! That is so awesome!"

Then Izuku smiled.

He liked Uraraka's reaction a lot better.

"Anyway," Iida cut in, shooting a look at his wristwatch. "If I didn't lose track of time... there is only two minutes left in this exercise...I can just stall for the remainder of the time…"

Izuku and Uraraka tensed as Iida trailed off, their eyes already darting towards the opposing side of the class rep, fully prepared to book towards the rocket simultaneously.

"But, with respect to you foolish heroes' perseverance, I suppose I will give you a glimpse of my true power before your meaningless deaths!" Iida leaned back, both hands on his waist, a sinister guffaw rocking his chest. " Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

Izuku turned towards Uraraka, his face dumbfounded, a judgemental finger pointed at the strange sight unfolding in front of him. "What is up with him?"

Uraraka responded with a wry smile. "He was also like this when I first bumped into him...I think Iida-kun is the type who takes role playing really seriously."

"Oh...I see…"

No other frivolous dialogues could be exchanged as Iida took off, and Izuku immediately put himself on guard.

A strong squall ravaged the area in the next moment, kicked up by the sheer speed of the class rep's movement. Undoubtedly, Iida was even faster than Katsuki.

In the center of the storm, Izuku shifted uncomfortably, Uraraka pinned closely to him as they stood back to back, watching vigilantly for each other.

Almost instinctively, Izuku knew that he wouldn't be able to match Iida's speed. He definitely could have just a few moments ago. But not right now.

Something about him changed in the past minute. Something important left him when he let his sword slip from his hands.

Yeah...the sword… Izuku looked around wildly for his weapon, eventually spotting it close by the staircase. A light crimson glow could still be seen emitting from its wooden body.

The same instincts that informed him of his physical impotence was now telling him that he needed to retrieve the glowing sword to stand a chance.

So, the green hero scampered towards it, ignoring the threat of Iida.

He managed to retrieve his sword just as Iida came at him with a kick. On sheer reflex, he blocked it with his sword—an action that he quickly came to regret as he found himself launched down the staircase.

His back rolled and collided with the edge with each individual stair as he bumped and tumbled down to the lower floor. When he finally stopped, he thought it to be a miracle that he somehow managed to survive.

But he had a feeling that by tomorrow morning, he just might wake up paralyzed.

"Deku-kun!" Uraraka called out to him in concern. Too wrapped up in his own pain, he couldn't offer any words of reassurance.

Like he suspected, he wasn't as strong as he was a moment ago.

Slowly, he crawled back up the stairs, all the while trying to process everything that happened up until now.

From his battle against Katsuki, it seemed that his quirk negating powers somehow managed to carry over to his sword.

It didn't escape his attention how Katsuki suddenly couldn't use his Quirk despite avoiding direct contact with him. Not to mention the utter ease he felt when he sliced through that gigantic fireball…

With one final grunt, Izuku dragged himself to the top of the staircase, where he quickly collapsed out of fatigue.

Uraraka wasn't doing much better than he was. Entrapped in a vortex of speeding Iida, Uraraka could only get thrashed around in her endeavor to reach their objective.

Against Iida, his power to negate wasn't as effective. The moments of contact were too fleeting to matter. He wondered if Iida even noticed the brief periods that his quirk turned off when they clashed against each other.

 _But…_ Izuku shifted his eyes towards the sword he held in his hand. _If I associate the power with the redness of my blade, then perhaps while the sword is still red, it will retain the quirk nullifying power as well…_

A plan quickly formed inside Izuku's mind. If he could stop Iida mid-dash, even if just for a brief moment, then they might have a chance at winning.

The boy stood up, making a sprint for the rocket, knowing that this was the most effective way to get the class rep's attention. If he wanted to put his plan into motion, he needed to do it while Uraraka still had the energy.

Sure enough, the armored teen was now charging straight at him, the engine of the teen's calves boosting the speed of the pursuit immensely.

Izuku grinned. It was going just as he planned.

The green-clad hero stopped mid-sprint and turned to face the approaching Iida, a firm foot planted in the ground in front of him, while his right hand reared back.

Then with all his might, he tossed the sword at his enemy, sending the bamboo weapon whirring through the air like a spinning buzzsaw.

Whether out of confidence that his armor would protect him, or simply caught off guard, Iida absorbed the hit of the spinning blade head on. He quickly realized that something was amiss, however, when he found himself slowing down.

His engines were no longer working.

The opening was all Izuku needed to tackle the stupefied class rep onto the floor.

"Uraraka-san, do it now!"

The brunette seemed to have caught on. "Okay!" She responded as she rushed towards them, and touched Iida with her hands.

"Uraraka-san?" Iida exclaimed in shock as his body parts started to float.

Under zero gravity, Iida-kun might be able to move even faster. But Izuku knew that mattered naught if he kept his grip on him.

"I apologize in advance for this, Iida-kun." He lifted Iida up,and charged towards the opposing side of the room while Uraraka headed enroute towards the rocket.

"Wait, Midoriya! Wait!" Iida cried out in panic as he thrashed futilely in his grasp.

Izuku didn't wait. Rather he steeled his heart and rammed the class rep into the wall, pinning him there with all his strength.

"Damn it, why won't my quirk activate?!" Iida continued to thrash, but Midoriya refused to budge.

And right in front of the class rep's eyes, with him unable to do anything to stop her, Uraraka touched the nuclear missile. Doing so just one second before the timer ran out.

The sound of All Might's voice boomed throughout the intercom.

"And the winner is…. The hero team!"

A loud, elongated sigh left Iida as he hung his head down in defeat.

Izuku smiled weakly, the announcement of their victory being more than enough for him to relax, his body slumping onto the floor the moment that he did so.

What came next was a sensation of sinking, as if he were free falling into a bottomless pit. Darkness dotted his vision, and then he was gone.

The last thing he heard was Iida and Uraraka calling his name out of concern.

* * *

When he came to, he was once again in the black and white world.

Though this time, he wasn't in his house, but lying flat on a hovering rectangular plane of pure white.

His surroundings were an endless black.

For an instant, he thought he was floating in outer space.

He slowly tried to push himself back up, gasping in horror when his fingers shattered at the pressure applied.

"Arrrgh!" Izuku cried out as he sat up, eyes staring at frost-covered hands that more resembled popsicles than flesh and bones.

His hands trembled endlessly in front of his eyes, quivering from a mixture of fear and agony.

How could something like this be happening to him?!

From across the plane, a blinding portal of light opened up, and out came the child version of himself that he saw in the kitchen.

In the hands of the disheveled child, was the lantern with the frozen flame.

With eyes that resembled glass, the boy stared at him, before lifting up the lantern for him to see.

"You're not taking this away from me again."

Strangely enough, he felt no malice in the boy's words. Rather, just a feeling of incredible sadness.

As if not wanting to be forgotten.


End file.
